You said 'Just go away from me, baby'
by alex-of-macedonia
Summary: but I couldn't stay away from you, baby Hollstein. Carmilla comes back to life, post-episode 34.


_**A/N: Because we all hope something like this is what's going to happen, and happy endings are crucial to our well-beings.**_

**disclaimer: I do not own Carmilla.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Sometimes magic takes its sweet time, and in this instance that time was two months.<p>

Two months of pulling every flaky piece of ash back to its source. Seven and a half weeks to fit it all back into a whole. Fifty-four days to correctly mold the curves and edges just so until finally, an agonizing eternity later, Carmilla Karnstein jolted upright and sucked in her first breath in almost two months. (Though if one wanted to be technical, it was her first breath in over 300 years.) The back of her mind chided her for doing such a human action, but a reflex is a reflex.

Her eyes quickly adjusted to the dark, showing that the basement under the Lustig Building was now a burnt out husk, and she was alone.

Well, as alone as one can be when the only other body in the room was the former shell of Mother, with a large, golden sword protruding from her chest.

_Laura._ She needed to get to Laura to make sure she hadn't— no. She refused to even entertain such a thought. If she had succeeded in killing Mother, then Laura and her redheaded dimwit squad surely made it home.

As she picked her way over chairs that had been broken down into use as stakes, and rotting fruits and vegetables strewn around makeshift catapults, Carmilla kept an eye out for any sign of life: Zetas, Danny's Summer Sosh girls, the few Alchemy kids she and Danny had run into on the way to the battle, anyone. Not even a whisper of a fly caught her vampiric hearing.

The midday sun was blinding when the last piece of the barricade came down. Carmilla was surprised it took her so long to dismantle it, but figured that, since she was clearly still alive, then wielding that cursed sword must have sapped her of her strength.

Rounding the corner of the old theatre building, she stopped in place at the sight of dozens of small white crosses in the yard. "No…." _Laura—_

She took off sprinting in the direction of their dorm. The sharp pain in her lungs and side barely registered as more than an annoyance because with each step she drew closer to finding out if her life were truly over, and it couldn't be. She had to be alive.

But if Laura had died in the fight against Mother, that would explain why they'd left her to rot down there. Only Laura cared about her. Maybe.

And if Laura died in that fight, she could _never_ forgive herself.

Wheezing, Carmilla halted right in front of her and Laura's shared room. Her hand hovered over the doorknob, unsure if she was ready for the assuredly terrible news that awaited her.

The door creaked as she pushed it inward, and she didn't see her tiny wannabe journalist sitting on the bed or at the computer. She held back a sob; there was nothing she could do, and she'd expected as much to happen, so there was no point in being sad, right?

Right?

The blasted yellow pillow lay in its usual spot on Laura's bed, and Carmilla found herself curling her body around it. The scent of her missing beloved, the hint of chocolate and warm summer days, nearly overwhelmed her. She couldn't hold back the sobs now. They wracked through her body, and it felt like an entire ocean's worth of water poured from her eyes before she finally fell asleep.

The sound of the door opening again woke her some time later. Perry's voice rang through the dark room.

"You're more than welcome to continue staying with us, dear. No one expects - or wants - you to come back here before you're ready."

"I'm ready as I'll ever be, Perry. I can't just waste the rest of my life away eating Nutella from the jar with LaFontaine and watching House Hunters marathons with you two."

That voice. For the second time that day, Carmilla jolted upright. The bedside lamp turned on and her eyes met Laura's.

"You're alive," whispered Laura, almost as if she were afraid Carmilla would disappear if she spoke too loudly.

The next ten seconds lasted hours as they stared at each other, drinking in every line and curve and freckle and hair. Then, finally, Laura rushed around to kneel in front of Carmilla, who had swung herself around so she sat on the bed with her feet on the floor. Laura grasped each of Carmilla's forearms, as if to ground herself to the reality of who was seated on her bed.

"Of course I'm alive, cupcake. Did you think a silly sword and a final showdown between myself and Mother would keep me from coming back to you?" She couldn't help the smirk, but she knew Laura loved it so she didn't try to stop.

Laura shook her head, unable to fix her gaze on any one spot of Carmilla's body for longer than two seconds. Her fingertips idly played over the vampire's smooth skin just below her elbow. "You were dead. I watched you burn up and disintegrate." Her voice was barely more than a murmur, but Carmilla heard her as clear as day.

"I was already dead when you met me, cutie. Whatever happened today was a minor—-"

Perry cut her off, causing her to jump. She'd forgotten the floor don was there. "Today? No, this happened two months ago."

"Wait, what?" Carmilla shifted her gaze over to Perry. "But I… We just…. No. I can't have been gone for two months." Looking back at Laura though, she knew it was true. The younger girl's eyes were red, and the bags beneath them were so large they could have doubled as travel bags for a three week trek in the Australian Outback. Her cheeks were slightly sunken in, as if she hadn't eaten properly in weeks. "Oh… Oh god, Laura. I'm so sorry."

"We had that fight, and then you were _gone_, and I never had the chance to say goodbye, never told you that I… how I…."

Carmilla gripped Laura's forearms. "I know, creampuff."

Tears began spilling over the edge, etching a dual stream down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry for ev-everything that I said. I wa-was so wrong to assume the worst in you wh-when all you wanted to do was keep me safe."

The vampire shook her arms free so she could place her hands on either side of Laura's face. Her slender fingers lightly brushed over her cheeks, wiping away the tears. "I should never have lied, and that's my fault. I'm sorry too," she said.

"I love you, Carmilla. I love you so much, and I'm so happy you're back." Laura managed to smile through her sobbing.

Carmilla leaned forward and let her breath ghost over Laura's lips, saying "I love you too, Laura," before pressing their lips together.

At that point Perry took her leave of their room, and much, much later, after clothing had been discarded and they had finally had their fill of each other, they lay in each other's arms in Carmilla's bed, sharing Laura's yellow pillow.

"You know," Laura whispered against Carmilla's cheek, "I never expected a vampire to have a heartbeat."

Surprised, Carmilla barked out a laugh. "We don't. The dead don't have beating hearts."

"Then how do you explain this?" Laura grabbed Carmilla's hand and pressed it to the left side of her chest. Sure enough, there was a light fluttering movement below the skin.

They each had theories, but eventually agreed that whatever magic had brought Carmilla back, as Laura swore she had watched her burn into nothing, had brought her back as human.

"For not being the hero of this piece, I'd call this a hell of a redemption."

"I'm still no hero, cutie, but I will accept thank yous in the form of more kisses."


End file.
